The Iron Yard Reviews
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Jerol Graves
Front-end Developer
I found this course extemely challenging in a way that showed me abilities that I forgot I had possessed. They lived up to their word and never made a promise that they did not keep. I feel prepared to tackle the job market with confidence and skill. I am sincerely appreciative for all of their help and support.
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Alexandre Marcondes
TIY Charleston 2017
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I had a phenomenal experience with The Iron Yard Charleston. There are a couple of things to keep in mind:
- You must do the pre-work and take it very seriously. It is immeasurably important that when doing the pre-work you do not only do the assignments but also make an effort to explore the concepts on your own and come up with applications for the concepts you're learning on your own. You will not learn these concepts by just completing the assignments in rote, neither during the pre-work or during the cohort itself.
- You must spend more than 40 hours a week on your assignments. Between completing the assignments themselves and applying them in new, creative ways, you will not be able to achieve the necessary amount of proficiency in the material to be able to get the fantastic job you can get at the end otherwise. As important as expanding on your interaction with the pre-work mateiral is, it is even more important to interact with the material during the cohort in the same way. That means side projects, if you have time for it. That means going back to your earlier projects and making them better, from scratch, with the new skills you learn every week.
- You will not copy and paste anything. To solidify syntactical and stylistic rules and norms you will have to spend a significant amount of time typing the same things over and over again. You wouldn't copy and paste your algebra homework if you wanted to get a job doing it. You won't want to do that with coding either.
- You should read trade blogs and news outlets as often as you can. Hacker News is a great resource for learning where to find these things. Even if you don't understand everything (you won't at first!) still read it. It will help you get a sense of the industry, how people work and act in the industry, and the general technologies that are popular and being used.
- You must attend technology meetups in your city. Like the previous point, you will not understand everything, but you will meet people who will explain these things to you and who know things your instructors sometimes will not. And contacts in the industry are so much easier to make in a casual meetup setting.
If these things sound like a drag or like they're going to take up too much of your time, then you're going to have a hard time finding a job in this industry. It is a fast paced one and there are thousands of people trying to get into it. The only way to stand out is to get involved and to take your learning the material as seriously as you can.
I began researching The Iron Yard about 4 months before starting it. In deciding whether I wanted to do it I spent a modest amount of time working on learning some things on my own before the cohort started. This gave me a really great foundation to succeed during the cohort. Even though I had that great foundation, I still found ways to spend upwards of 80 hours a week working to become a software engineer. Take it seriously.
This is also hands down the most fun way to learn anything. If you are a focused and self-driven person then you will thrive. If you are willing to ask questions and admit you don't know things then you will thrive. On the other hand, you will be sorely disappointed with the program if you aren't that kind of person. It's not for everybody, but for those who are willing to put in the time, it is perfect.
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Mike Smith
Not Worth The Money
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Terrible experience, I should have known because when I toured the campus, it sounds like you are about to fall through the raggedy wood floors. Also, when I took my assessment, their website crashed and said “ 500 error That means we can’t find what you are looking for or there is a BLUNDER IN OUR CODE” . How are you going to teach me to build a good website and your site crashed due to bad code? This school is not worth the money, check out comparable schools in the area like Thinkful or General assembly.
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Jobless
4 months and no job
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It went fast, as in time flew by. Alot of my classmates are also jobless after 4 months of graduation and the school director just quit to exacerbate the issue. They do have decent wifi and the salvation army is across the street so you can have an idea of where you might be afterwards: jobless. And a huge debt to pay afterwards. Sounds kinda like what an orange guy with a red tie has been saying for the last 10 months. This is mostly negative but it is the truth for most of us. My review would be better if at least I was close to getting a job but so far its been silence from everywhere, even the supposed job support sucks. They just send blasted links from places I search anyway. Its sort of embarrassing. Though, its cool that now I can make a site if I want but as long as a check to my name is not coming. then screw this. And for that reason, I'm out. Ps I just saw all the glowing reviews so I assume my comment will be stuffed to the last pages so if you read this I'm shocked.
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Tyler Hamlett
Endurance is key
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My experience at TIY has been exhausting, as expected. We learn new concepts every day and constantly apply our knowledge to homework assignments and projects. A lot of outside-the-box thinking is required [insert CSS joke here] which is preparing us for the wild world of web development. After a few weeks, you'll start to think of everyday situations like grocery shopping or yard work as a human compiler. Just hang on and focus on learning and applying what you've learned. Try not to waste time worrying about what you don't know-- there's really not enough energy for that. It will all make sense in time.
Our instructor is excellent. He teaches us, but doesn't like to give us the answers right away. In a way, he is teaching us how to learn as well as how to code. If you want someone to hand you all the answers, don't pursue this course. It won't happen.
Going through this bootcamp is a great experience. I'm making friends with my fellow classmates, I'm learning how to be a web developer, and there are networking oppurtunites everywhere. If you're up for the challenge, go for it!
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Paul Dennis
TIY Atlanta Experience
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I was part of The Iron Yard Atlanta's November 2016 Java Back-End Class. I had an excellent experience at the Iron Yard. The instructors are passionate and engaged in the field of technology. They are very much NOT just 9-5 instructors; they are generally available on Slack (communication/messaging tool) over the weekends and in the evenings. On one occasion my instructor and I stayed on campus until 9pm working on getting a JQuery plugin up and running. Even instructors teaching other classes are willing to help you out (though they are of course focused on their own students first).
Job assistance is a large part of what people expect out of code schools and TIY takes that very seriously. I graduated less than a month ago and I've already been contacted by several companies through TIY. They are always available to answer questions about companies ("What do you know about this company? Is it a good place to work?") and we had several "mock interview" opportunities to get us started.
Paradoxically I do wish I had done more research about The Iron Yard even though I am 100% satisfied. I didn't really "shop around" and compare other code schools as much as I should have, but I think I lucked out. The Iron Yard (Atlanta at least) is an excellent place to be.
Best of luck!
P.S.: This comment is more about intensive code schools in general and TIY certainly fits that bill: it is hard work for 12 weeks and you need to make sure before you start that you will have the time and energy to devote to it. -
Robert Johnson
Bootcamp Review of Week One
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My first week of the front-end coding at The Iron Yard campus in Salt Lake City has been exciting and fast paced. The week was full of discussions, laughs, new challenges and getting to know some of my fellow cohorts better.
The lessons presented thus far by Sean Duncan, our course instructor, have been enlightening and well focused. I must commend him on his ability to switch gears between presenting his lecture, answering all our questions and making the concepts interesting, especially since I am a begging developer.
My first week has been meaningful in a few ways. First, I feel like I finished my first week with many more questions then what I came in with. And second, I feel as though I got several gears turning inside my head that were not turning before the start of the camp. I suppose both of these are fairly common when someone is learning so many new and amazing things for the first time. Finally, I think the cohort I have the pleasure of being a part of has good chemistry. I have been blown away with everyone’s willingness to help each other and have fun while doing it. This was just the camaraderie I was hoping for in this coding bootcamp at The Iron Yard. I am excited to see where my new career path will take me.
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Amy
Fast Paced Education
Pros:
Very dedicated office staff
Great Campus
Fast Paced Education
Cons:
No real syllabus for the course
Instructor was out for a week with no make up days
Over all:
I really learned a lot. It was an exhausting experience, but I now have an app on the app store, which is really exciting.
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Allen
Jumpstart your career
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TIY Raleigh pushed me to learn faster than independent study, with more depth of knowledge and with more confidence to approach potential employers.
I enrolled in mobile engineering at TIY Raleigh and found it worth every penny. Three months after graduation I had accepted a major pay increase from my previous job, was working for an incredible startup, spending my time on projects I actually care about around people I enjoy. I can't thank TIY Raleigh enough for providing the pieces to allow this to happen.
As others have said - you get out what you put in. If you commit to this do it full-time and with no reservations. Your persistance will pay off.
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Will
Consider Your Options
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When I applied to the Iron Yard, I had already been in a web-related job for about eight years. It wasn't really going anywhere, so I figured I was the perfect candidate. I chose the UI Design course to improve my design skills, as I had already built sites with a graphic designer before.
It would be disingenuous to say I got nothing from the course. Learning the design cycle for websites and practicing it repeatedly was an invaluable experience. Unfortunately, the short time frame demanded that we had to produce rushed builds of sites and had little time to review and improve upon them. I greatly respect our instructor, but it was clear that he had more he wanted to cover than he had time to invest.
In retrospect, I should have gone with the concurrent Front End Engineering course. While the UI Design course was taught well, I was already familiar with much of the material. I think learning frameworks like Node and Backbone would have opened up a broader spectrum of jobs to me. The collaborative project between the two classes was an excellent experience that continues to impress those who see it.
I pursued several job opportunities via the Slack channel provided to Iron Yard graduates, but none of them went anywhere. As someone who has never been comfortable selling themselves, I'm not sure if there is anything that the Iron Yard could have done differently that would have helped me. The staff was very supportive, and I can't fault them for a dirth of job openings in my area.
It's been nearly a year since I completed the Iron Yard, and I am still looking for a position. While I don't consider it a wasted opportunity, I don't think it was worth the cost. At least not for someone with any familiarity with web development.
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Tom Gobich
The Right Way Forward!!!
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Before I took a leap of faith with The Iron Yard's immersive twelve week Front-End Engineering course I had spent two years studying at a local community college. My first year I studied web design and I grew to feel this course didn't cover enough development, so I switch over to software programming. This ended up not being what I was looking for either as the further you got in the curriculum the more online the courses got, the more sparingly courses were actually offered, and in all honestly it felt like the instructors cared less as well.
Now, jumping into my experience with The Iron Yard the tone is completely flipped! You don't need to worry about hit or miss instructors because everyone, not just the instructors, are ready and willing to help whenever you need them. They're willing to spend as much time with you as you need, which you just cannot get anywhere else! I also feel confident and proud to say I learned a lot more during my twelve weeks at The Iron Yard than my two years at college. Working with Front-End languages eight plus hours every day really allows you to engrave the knowledge deep into your core and allow you to not only feel comfortable with the languages, but confident in your abilities as well.
The curriculum comparison between college and The Iron Yard I feel is one of the most important differences. With the community college I went to responsive websites were considered an advanced topic and high-demand frameworks like Angular or React are never covered. At The Iron Yard you start with responsiveness within the first week or two and I personally am leaving feeling confident with both Angular and React. My team and I are actually building our final project using Angular, and I'm building my personal portfolio utilizing React.
I never reached a point during my time in college where I felt job ready, and here I am two days away from finishing my final week at The Iron Yard and I'm anxious and ready to start applying for jobs. Most importantly I know exactly which jobs I'm a perfect fit for!
If I could go back and do it all again I would've started with The Iron Yard and never looked back. Ultimately, I'm just happy I ended up finding them!
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cesar marroquin
Las Vegas Campus
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I highly recommend the backend engineering course at the iron yard for anybody looking to get into backend web development. I am a graduate of the backend course, and now have a job as a web developer. I can say without a doubt that the course was an amazing investment for myself. It's incredible how much knowledge I learned from the 3 months at the school, and I amazed myself knowing that I could build applications I never thought I would be able to at the end.
As for the staff there, they are a really amazing group of people and they will make you feel like family. Gabe shepard is an amazing campus director who genuinely cares about the alumni and wants to make sure that this Iron Yard campus is the best that it can be. Mike and Jeff are really both amazing guys, who are very experienced developers. I took a class with Jeff who is the current backend instructor, and he is one of the best teachers I have ever had. He has extensive experienve as a software engineer, so he has the programming resume to back up what he is teaching. It is apparent that he has an inate teaching gift to go along with his programming expertise, and those two are the perfect storm for an amazing instructor. I attribute a great deal of my success to him.
If you are reading this, and are interested in joining the school, I would like to make it clear that it would be in your best interest to DO THE PREWORK before you join the class. That would be my biggest piece of advice, because it will be tough to play catch up the entire time because you did not take the time to learn the basics beforehand. Other than that, it is expected to be a hard endeavour, but it will be more than worth it.
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Eddy J.
Game Changer
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Background. Before TIY I was a manager at a restaurant working countless hours to pay the bills, as well as trying to balance my school work. I had a passion for technology as well as an interest in programming but no one to guide me in which direction I should take. The only amount of experience I had was what I learned at school and a couple of lessons I did on online sources.
Before Course. Before I go on, yes the course will be hard but both the director and instructors are very upfront with this and make sure that you are well aware that this course will be a nonstop sprint to the finish. However, the instuctors will send you prework before the class begins and resources to help prepare you for what is to come when the course begins. I HIGHLY recommend taking the time to go over the prework and practice because that will make all the difference when it is time to start.
During the course. At first the course seems to be overwhelming and doubt comes into mind if this is something I could pull off. However, nothing worth the time ever comes easy and with the help of my classmates, as well as the high-energy and spirit the campus has, the course began to be much more bearable. Many of the graduates go into TIY as well and are more than happy to help you when you need it or motivate you to keep pushing. Both the instructors and director are open to talk about anything that may be bothering you whether it is related to TIY or not, which helps you realize that they do care about you and want you to succeed.
Overall. If you are like myself, working a job that you find yourself not enjoying and want to start a new career, then call TIY. They teach you enough code to help you get an entry-level job and also help teach you to think like a developer which is a skill that is very valuable and hard to achieve. This course is not something you can pass or succeed in if you are not willing to put the time and effort into. The instructors and director will do everything they can to help you but you must be willing to give 110% back as well. TIY has helped me get prepared for a new and exciting career, and even after graduation you are still welcome anytime back at campus. If you are serious about changing your career for the better, give them a call.
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Venel
Brace yourself
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Brace yourself for an emotional ride. From feeling disappointment & frustration of not understanding. To excitement and joy from the support of your classmate, and instructor.
I honestly didn't know what to expect and had no prior experience of coding. I was grateful for my classroom peers, who were amazingly helpful. I was part of the 1st cohort and it was also the instructor first class. It was a learning experience for him also. Going back and sitting in at the current cohort and learning from the current instructor, I would say the Iron Yard(Tampa), stepped up their game from a 7 to 9/10. With all that said. IY is a great code school, with awesome staffs and currently amazing instructors. If I could I would do another term there.
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Michael Reed
More than worth the investment...
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It can be so incredibly difficult to summarize my experience as a student at TIY Tampa as every hour was so influential that unless I could download those 12 weeks directly into your brain, there would be no other way to thoroughly and adequately relay just how amazing, valuable, and effective my tenure there had been. I will, however, do my best.
The Instructors: Gavin Stark and Jason Perry
These two make a fantastic team. Their methods of teaching are dynamic enough to appeal to a variety of learning styles. They teach you the WHY of programming, not just how, and guide you to make the conclusions instead of just handing you the answers. Supportive, encouraging, compassionate, they truly care about each student and not only their success but where they're struggling as well. They get so genuinely excited to see you learning and succeeding and that makes the entire experience that much more valuable.The Campus Director: Toni Warren
Toni... what can I say about Toni except that she is one of the most amazing people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. This woman just plain rocks. Her endless toiling for your benefit will never end, even after graduation. If she wasn't pounding down the doors of every tech business in the area she was organizing meet-ups, contacting potential employers to come on campus (warm interviews FTW), setting up meetings to touch base with students, staging outings to visit tech businesses, guiding on portfolio presence, she does it all and she does it well.The Curriculum: Ruby on Rails
The curriculum is designed to be progressive and each lesson feeds and expounds upon the last while planting seeds for the next. You learn the hard way first, to understand the inner workings, and you don't even realize it's happening. Next thing you know you are understanding advanced JavaScript... and that wasn't even a focus in the course. This course is designed not to make you the worlds gift to software engineering (b/c that'd be ridiculous in 12 weeks), but to get you all the tools to make you successful in the field. It provides all the necessary building blocks to get you hired and teaches you how to continue learning afterward.My experience:
I spent 14 years in automotive and wanted out. 10 hour days with no breaks, 6 days a week, all to barely make $30k while being disrespected and having your skill disregarded; I am worth more than that. I missed my opportunity for college and at 34 I didn't have the time or money to spend 4+ years trying to get my life back on track. I took some time to research which bootcamp I wanted to attend, brushed up on as many free online coding courses as I could, and finally decided to dive in at TIY Tampa. They sounded like they knew what they were doing and I was inticed by their stance of teaching you to think like a programmer. It was intense, to say the least, and taxing on every level like you wouldn't believe. 12+ hours/day, 7 days/week, for 12 straight weeks, all the while feeling the intensity of the course, and this is what I left automotive to do?! I am more than happy I took the chance. It is money well spent and the value shows itself every day. I went to TIY for Ruby on Rails and now I'm a Java/SQL developer working with an awesome team at a fantastic company and I wouldn't change it for the world.I would be more than happy to talk more in depth about my experience and help answer any questions/concerns you may have when deciding if this campus is right for you.
Michael Reed
Software Engineer
myMatrixx
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-reed-6b524b108
Portfolio: www.michaelreed.me
Email: myk27x@yahoo.com -
Chris
Overall good program
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Attending The Iron Yard in Tampa/St Pete was one of the best decisions that I have made in a while. It was a really good experience because I found an exciting new career and made some good friends along the way. The program came through with everything that they promised, and it lived up to most of my expectations. Five weeks after graduating, I was starting my first job as a software developer.
The campus director and other campus staff are helpful, and they work hard to make sure that the needs of the students are being met. They also provide valuable job assistance. The instructors love to teach, and they are willing to spend extra hours with students who need more help outside of class time. Even after graduation, they make themselves available to alumni who have questions about new things they are learning on the job.
The Front End Engineering curriculum focuses on JavaScript, which is a good language to know. There is perhaps a little too much time devoted to the React library and not enough devoted to JavaScript fundamentals, but a lot of good hands on programming experience is provided. Advanced CSS topics are also covered towards the end of the course.
Overall, I would strongly recommend The Iron Yard if you are interested in changing into an exciting new career in Tampa Bay.
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Kyle S
Tampa/St. Pete Rails Course
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I went through the Ruby on Rails course track at the Tampa/St. Pete location and loved it. There have been some instructor changes and swaps since I went through, but all for the sake of improvement. I was the second cohort to go through and they contionue to improve on the process with each itteration. While the pitch is that they can teach anyone to code, in my opinion this career field is not for everyone. You will likely experienece extreme bouts of frustration and overwhelmness, but eventually it can pay off. You have to be willing to put in A LOT of hardwork! Lecture is from 9-12 and then lab time while the instructor is around until about 5. However I was usually there untill at least 10 at night every day. 12 weeks is not enough time to make you a great programmer and teach you everything. It will give you a solid foundation from which to build your career though. You'll learn as you go there is an endless amount of resources and technology stacks to learn, but the key is to focus a just a few and develop your skills against them before trying to learn everything. Be willing to fail and have a strong desire to be a problem solver. It wasn't until about a year into my job before I finially felt like I belonged in this career and I wasn't just an imposter. Try some tutorials on codeschool, thoughtbot, or other google sources. Also checkout itunes university through the app store. There are a ton of free college computer science course with lecture videos. Just watching some of those and going through tuturials before attending TIY will help a lot. You will most likely have no idea what they are talking about or what you are doing, but it will help get you familiar with terms you'll be hearing.
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Amanda
Challenging and extremely worthwhile
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This program is not for the faint of heart. It is extremelly challenging, it will keep you up many nights, it will occupy most of your time, and you will basicallly live and breathe code. HOWEVER, it will be the most rewarding and worthwhile experiences you will ever have in your life.
From the people you meet, from the professors who guide you, and from the amazing director the campus has, you will undoubtefully have the best support group to push you to become the best you can be in such a demanding situation. This program is unique in that it teaches you to think as a developer by being able to analyze what is in front of you, identify the problem, formulate a solution, and then apply the solution using the language and framework you enrolled for. The advantage of this approach is that it paves a more effective path for you to keep learning new frameworks and languages as you advance your career.Before applying, I had never touched a Mac laptop in my life - as in.. I didnt know where to find my documents, much less how to install chrome. I made the leap to attend The Iron Yard after being unhappy with my then-current career path in business. Even after obtaining an MBA, I just couldnt find an area in business I was passionate about. I can say with the most absolute certainty the best career decision I have ever made was taking this leap and trusting the program at TIY.
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Jonathan Colegrove
Amazing
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I recently graduated The Iron Yard's (TIY) Backend Engineering Ruby on Rails course in Tampa (really St Petersburg), FL. Nothing but good things to say about it.
Gavin Stark is a wonderful instructor who pushes you to succeed, but is still there to help (even late in the day on Slack) because the material is a lot to absorb. Classes consist of review, introducing new topics, practice, and a project. Get used to daily hw projects, get used to studying & re-studying notes, but also get used to throwing your hands up & shouting "YES!" because the breakthroughs will come, and you will be learning. I entered TIY after having self-studied for a couple months. All I had learned was left in the dust after week 2 (exciting to learn that much)!!
Jason (front-end instructor) was very helpful with design tips & to check out your work, even though his hands were full with a class 3x as large as our backend class. Toni, the campus director, was extremely helpful setting up connections, presentations from local businesses (who have hired from TIY), and a host of informative meetups - so much so that it didn't feel like there was enough time to do all the hw & attend. An outstanding team. -
Joshua Wykell
I Loved It! But It's Not For Everyone.
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When I decided to go to the Iron Yard I knew almost nothing about coding. I had tried to do a few tutorials on my own while I was finishing college and working full time, but that was not working. The Iron Yard claims to be able to teach someone who knows no computer languages how to code. I would say in my case they delivered.
Of course it was hard. At times I was sure that I wasn't learning enough, and that there was no way I would be employable in my field after completing the program. But I stuck with it, and now I work as a developer, at a company that I like.
I do think that the curriculum was somewhat softly defined, and this could have used improvement. I think the small class sizes, and instructors who seem to really care and understand what the students are going through helped to compensate for this. Any time I requested some one on one help during lab hours I received it. Sometimes that help was a demo of the solution to the problem I was dealing with, but sometimes it was instruction on how to research and figure it out myself. Ultimately the later often proved more valuable than the former in the "real world". I understand that the curriculum may be more consistent now.
One word of caution I would issue to anyone looking at a coding boot camp: You are exposed to more information than you can assimilate and this is intentional. It can be discouraging because every day it can feel like you are forgetting more than what you are retaining. That is actually okay. Each day builds off of the next, and the thing you couldn't figure out or remember three weeks ago will suddenly seem not so complicated looking back. It is one thing to hear that and say 'okay, no problem'. It’s another to feel like you are failing daily. I emphasize feel. You won't actually be failing.
It is not for everyone. Expect to be uncomfortable. I know I was. I also know that I rounded the corner, and even today, when I hit a wall on a problem in my job, I take a minute to acknowledge my frustration, and then I take a minute to remind myself that I know how to figure out problems, and I just haven't figured this one out yet. I think that is one of the most valuable things I learned at the Iron Yard.
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Derek
Worth It
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I got a job from an employer that attended my Demoday. I learned so much about OOP, framewroks, and even some design. I learned a lot about myself.
Iron Yard staff continue to support me and check in with me a year out of from graduation. I get career guidance, help with code, and encouragment. Some use the "codeschool" moniker, some use "bootcamp", I felt it was like it was a bootcamp. I have heard people in the armed forces speak of the comradery and closeness they have with their peers. I feel that way about the people in my cohort and my instructor. It is a leap of faith, a huge financial and time commitment. Iron Yard staff are well aware of that and respect it.
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Mark
Back End Rails
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I came to the Iron Yard after three years in I.T. help desk when I realised that it was not something I wanted to make a career of. The difference in proactively solving problems rather than always reacting is what drew me to a career in programing.
I found the Iron Yard a perfect fit with the full immersion and fast pace. The Instructors were amazing in their capacity breakdown complex concepts into manageable pieces. The career support, between the lectures preparing you for applying for jobs and the opportunity at demo day to present in front of local employers, was excellent. It helped me get my current job shortly after graduation. Where I have found that not only did I come out of the Iron Yard with knowledge about Rails but I also had the tools to continue to learn and grow as a developer. -
Kurtis
Best Decision of my Life
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After going the traditional, four year degree, work in a cubicle route, I found myself extremely dissatisfied with the daily grind that my life had become. I decided to make a change and after some soul searching and research, ended up enrolled at The Iron Yard.
It was the best decision I've ever made. Gavin, the backend instructor is not only hands down one of the smartest people I have ever met, but he is an amazing teacher and he really cares. I suffered a pretty intense injury while I was at The Iron Yard and Gavin was instrumental in helping me get through it. For that alone I will be forever grateful.I have stayed involved with The Iron Yard long after completing the program and have seen how they quickly respond to feedback and adjust the curriculum to align with the skills that employers are looking for. Everyone who works at The Iron Yard is passionate about what they do and focused on the success of the students.
Toni is tireless with her networking and her efforts to turn The Iron Yard into the pillar of the community that it has become (there are months where there are code/tech meetups there almost every day). She is a great resource for the job hunt after the program. I was working at my current job just over a month after finishing The Iron yard, despite it wrapping up just before the hoilday season- not typically the best time of year to be job hunting.
If you are looking at code schools The Iron Yard is definitely among the best. I would not be where I am today without them.
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Da-Me Kim
Best Decision
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The Iron Yard did a wonderful job preparing me for the workplace as a developer. Before I attended the Iron Yard I had never written a line of code and really needed a career change. I was skeptical, nervous and didn't know if I could get through it. I came with the right attitude and prepared myself to work hard. With the expansive career support the Iron Yard provided I felt confident that when I finished I would be able to find work and contribute.
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Joshua Rivers
Front End Engineering
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This was my second course at The Iron Yard and I thoroughly enjoyed both experiences. I just finished with Front End Engineering to fill out my portfolio to become more a Full Stack Developer. My Instructor taught me how to think more like a programmer and use languages/libraries as tools to get projects completed. If you are thinking about changing careers or even improving your current developer status then The Iron Yard is for you!
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Hannah
A happy little coder
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I am a recent graduate of the Front-end Engineering program at The Iron Yard - Nashville.
I had an incredible experience this past summer during the 12 weeks of intense, but awesome, course-work at The Iron Yard. I came from a background in public relations and photography, and had never worked in the tech industry before. My experience with coding was limited to a few online tutorials I had been doing before deciding to go to school.
It was really remarkable to step into the classroom on the first day, along with my classmates, and go from zero to sixty in a matter of weeks. Not only did we learn to code, but we learned that learning how to learn is a truly valuable skill, and one that employers look for in developers.
There really aren’t words to describe how great the Nashville staff is. They were always so accessible during and after class any time we needed anything, and truly went above and beyond to prepare me and my classmates for the job-hunt after graduation.
I’m currently a few weeks into my first job as a developer at an agency in Nashville and couldn’t be more stoked to be working in the tech industry! If you’re wondering if investing in three months of full-time coding can truly help you change your life, the answer is yes. I did it, and you can, too. -
N. Ross
Back End Web Development - Java
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First, let me say that I had an excellent experience with The Iron Yard. Gabe (Campus Director), Jeff (Back End Instructor), and Mike (Front End Instructor) were always available and did what they could to help me.
My cohort, 12 weeks in length, was focused on Java. We also took on JavaScript, JQuery, and Android. Java is dense, but it is mature. Answers to questions can be found with a simple Google search and this was encouraged in the later weeks of the course. I made sure to get everything I could out of the course. I showed up early, left late and to be honest, usually that was necessary. I have been through college and flight training, this course was harder than both.
The course started at 9 a.m. in which there were 3 hours of lecture, followed by 5 hours of lab time. During lab time we worked on that evening's assignement. There was an assignment almost every day and sometimes those assignements took us more than one night to complete. Every weekend there was a cumulative project and I personally felt this is where I learned to apply the concepts we learned during lecture. Jeff and Mike have vast knowledge bases and encourage you to speak up when you do not understand. Do it! Ask questions! But, they did not always give you the answer. They want you to try to figure things out for yourself, then ask. The course culminated in the final 3 weeks where we worked on our final projects. The final project is very challenging and the deadline made it stressful.
After graduating, the job hunt, for me, was not as bad as I thought it would be. I will be filling a Web Developer role for a large entertainment company, next week. Gabe helped me every step of the way. He helped me iron out my resume and introduced me to potential employers. In preparation for getting a job, we had very generous hiring partners that would come in and help us understand the roles we would fill, give us tips about constructing our resumes, and the instructors were available for mock interviews when we were job-ready.
Overall, I would recommend The Iron Yard to anyone who wants a straightforward, challenging, yet rewarding education in their pursuit of a career in web development. If you put in the work, you will improve, you will make friends, and you'll learn a lot about yourself.
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Ben Lee
The Best Decision I Ever Made
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I went to The Iron Yard Atlanta, Donwtown campus' Frontend Engineering course in February of 2016. I hadn't written a single line of code before, but I had looked around at majors at some of the local colleges and kept finding that I didn't want to put 4 years into a possiblity for a career. I heard about The Iron Yard and how it was 12 weeks of intense learning. I had always liked technology and know that I'm a quick learner so I checked it out.
Within a month of hearing about the course I was enrolled, withing 3 weeks of starting I knew that this was the path for me. I ended up coming back as the campus' TA for the next two Frontend cohorts and recently landed a job in the cybersecurity field.
I more than tripled my earning potential in 3 months of education. The people, the environment, and the experience are like no other, and I wouldn't change it for anything. Check out the online prework courses to see if you think coding is something you might want to do. If so, get in touch with one of the wonderful staff members at the campus closest to you to get started!
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Jennifer Graves
Great Way to Lear a New Career
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I came to the Iron Yard after years in Customer Service when I realized that I wasn't interested in my current career's long term path. I'd always wanted to work with code professionally, but for some reason never thought I would be able to become a good developer. I attended a few of the crash courses (really recommend this!) and met with the instructors and campus director before deciding that a career move right now could be the best thing for me. I graduated from the 12 week Back End Engineering course about two months ago and have had excellent career support since. I'm getting ready to accept my first position as a junior .NET developer and I couldn't be happier with the whole experience at The Iron Yard.
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Zach Bradshaw
Front End Engineering
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I had a great experience at The Iron Yard. My instructor, Chris was passionate about teaching and seeing us become developers. I worked harder in the 12 weeks I was in The Iron Yard than I ever have before, but the end result was more than worth it.
That being said, this program is not for everyone. TIY doesn't require previous experience of any kind before you start the program, but I would tell anyone interested in enrolling to do as much self learning as you can before you start. I was doing online tutorials off and on for around two years before starting TIY, and was able to come in with a base knowledge that really helped me in the first couple of weeks. Checking out some tutorials before enrolling will also give you an idea if you actually like software development.
If you're interested in TIY I would strongly encourage you to talk to a graduate from the campus you would be attending. Ask them every question you can think of. I was able to talk with several graduates from Durham before I enrolled and their insight into the amount of work I needed to prepare for was invaluable.
The Iron Yard is a big investment of both time and money, and it's an investment I'm so glad that I made.
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Meghan Smith
Excellent preparation for new career
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I went through The Iron Yard Columbia's User Interface Design program when it was web design and development. The course prepared me for a new career in just a few months of hard effort. Some benefits of the way The Iron Yard operates:
- The bootcamp style learning means you live, breath, eat, and sleep the coursework for 12 weeks. Similiar to traveling to France to learn French, by immersing yourself in the course and community, you learn much more rapidly than you would if you kept your old job and took classes at night.
- The community is awesome - your classmates, instructers, and alumni are all rooting for you. We all want you to succeed and will help you in any way we can.
- The community gives you contacts for finding jobs. People hire people they know and like, so talk to your instructors, presenters, and any speakers that come through.
- I can't speak for all of their instructors, but my instructor was amazing - he was exceptional with pacing. He allowed questions but not too far off topic. He was good at monitoring the class to see by our glazed eyes if we were missing something and excellent at analogies and explanations that made sense. He was always available to help, but willing to let us struggle through things, too. Even in small classrooms, there's a range of abilities and learning styles, but he was fantastic at moving things in a way that kept us from being bored. I can't say enough good things about the instructor I had.
- They help you find a job. They won't find a job FOR you - you still need to put in the work - but they have contacts in place, give feedback, recommendations, and assistance.
I found out about The Iron Yard and read a slogan, 'Life's too short for the wrong career', and it's very true. Making the decision to quit my job for at least 3 months, pay for school, and find a new job after was very scary but amazingly well worth it. Because of the huge salary bump, I paid off my school loan in less than a year.
To get through it and get a job on the other side, you need to be dedicated and hardworking. If you're lackadaisical, you might not get very far. If you really need a career change and are willing to commit to working hard, The Iron Yard can prepare you very well.
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Jim Weiss
Back-End Engineering
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I work for a Company in Troy, Michigan called MOTOR Information Systems as a product manager. We are a data licensing company for the automotive aftermarket. We have databases and applications that help mechanical and collision repair shops calculate the cost of repairs (part numbers, pricing, and labor times) and execute the repairs (repair procedures, specifications, wiring diagrams, etc.). We are a subsidiary of Hearst Business Media.
Hearst is offering qualified employees an opportunity to either upgrade their skills or learn new skills in software engineering. This new program kicked off in 2016 and is called SEED, for Software Engineering Education and Development. Nine employees across six companies were selected to attend different boot camps across the country. Are jobs were secure upon completion and we continued to receive our salary.
I was part of SEED Genesis. The idea is to offer product managers or quality analysts an opportunity to learn software coding so they come back with fresh ideas, new and better ways to execute in their current roles, or have an opportunity to be a developer. After the boot camp, we are all doing a six month internship with our development teams at the respective companies.
For me, the experience has been amazing. I have worked alongside developers in many different roles over the past 20 years and have always wanted to learn to code. As a lot of people know, it is hard to learn just from tutorials and in your spare time. You hit roadblocks and don’t have an easy way to overcome them, and then you run out of spare time. Having time to focus and an instructor to clarify the things you don’t understand is invaluable. The staff at Iron Yard Detroit was really dedicated to all of the student’s success. They had a team approach to both the teaching and the administration of the campus.
I returned to the workplace with a whole new set of skills and was well prepared for my internship. The back-end engineering curriculum at Iron Yard is exactly in line with the technology stack we use at MOTOR. When I opened some of our most complex applications to review code, there was not a lot of mystery. It was evident that we covered a lot of ground in the 12 week program. I can't wait to help shape the future of our company.
The one thing I would really tell anyone considering any boot camp is be prepared. Learn what immersive is. Do the pre-work, twice if necessary. I literally put my life on hold for the 12 week program, usually working between 10-12 hours most week days, and a few hours on Saturday and Sunday. Maybe others who are smarter than me won’t have to work as hard, but I did.
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Patrick Cooke
Great Coding Experience
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I signed up for the Mobile Dev program at the Detroit Campus of The Iron Yard and enjoyed my time. My instructor took a practical approach in teaching both Swift and Objective-C, creating situations and examples to code into instead of teaching subjects with no narrative or relative experience to relate it to.
There were difficult moments in the 3-month course, but between one-on-one help from the instructor and working out problems with others in my cohort, I was able to break through mental blocks and complete each assignment at or above expectation.
In addition to coding, we held weekly meetings with the campus staff and instructors to talk about the business of coding; learning about managing stress, how to prepare for interviews, and what to expect from jobs and careers in coding.
The course finished with a demo day where The Iron Yard brought in a dozen local tech companies and each of us students presented final projects in front about 70 people. After presentations we had time for tech demos and small group chats with attendees and potential employers.
Overall, I consider this a worthwhile experience and has set me in the right direction towards beginning a new career in software development.
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Ari Dalton
Back-End Engineering
This is a Java 3 month fully immersive crash course. This was very intense and a lot of fun. I must have logged 60+ hours a week between class studies and doing homework. I've never been setup in an environment to learn so much so fast before. It was a blast. What we learned will stick and I have the confidence now to adapt to any programming career path I want to follow now.
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Ashley Ellis
Extremely Rewarding
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Doing the RoR class in Durham was one of the best decisions I've ever made. The course was taught by an incredible instructor who was very engaged and had a way of breaking down complex topics into an easily digestible format. I learned a ton from him and always tell anyone who asks that the instructor, Mason, was probably the best teacher I've ever had.
Often times people ask if they can learn the material on their own, and you cerntainly can, however you'd be hard pressed to learn it as quickly and as thorougly as you can at TIY. Additionally, probably the greatest benefit in my opinion was having an experienced developer as our instructor so that we could learn from him how to "talk the talk." This made me seem a lot more competent in interviews because I sounded like an experienced developer.
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Vivek
Backend Rails Graduate
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The Iron Yard was one of the best experiences of my life. I decided that I wanted to make programming my career, which is what eventually led me here. I believe the most important part is knowing that you actually like to program, or think of UI/Ux before you plunge into the Iron Yard. For me that part was easy, because I had been trying to teach myself for several years with no success.
The 12 week course is a speeding train that never slows down. You have to be discplined, take breaks, don't fall behind and stay motivated! Typically I got to the school at 7AM and did some self study until the 9AM lecture and I would leave around 7PM take a break for a couple of hours before finishing up the assignement. For my specific class - the assignments had several difficulty levels, everyone had to finish the base difficulty but there was always more to do! The important part is to always stay challenged and ask for help when needed. Before you know it, the 12 weeks will be over and you will be presenting your very own 'final project' that was built in 2 weeks and will be amazed at your own achievement.
After graduation comes the hardest part of this journey. Finding a job. Research your market! For example, Austin is extremely saturated with junior developers and there are 8 code schools that have more graduates every few months. The Iron Yard does a good job preparing you with resumes, cover letters, interview skills (technical and soft). However, you will have to do the legwork to actually search for the jobs, network in your city and apply!
If you are someone that is self driven, but needs a support structure that can propel you forward, The Iron Yard is for you! And the connections you make here will help you get to that next step of your life.
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Andrew London
Front End Engineering Student
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Over all my experience was good. There are a few things to remember:
Getting a job is hard. This is not a silver bullet to landing you a six figure salary in the first year. Expect high 40's low 50's for your starting salary for the Charleston area. I was fortunate enough to land a coding job within the first month, but most people took a bit longer. Expect 1-3 months before you get an offer. It takes time, effort, and a bit of luck. Job assistance is available, but there is only so much the staff can do. It really comes down to you.
Focus on your portfolio. It will be the most valuable thing when you leave. Pick 4 or 5 well done projects to feature, and that's it. Add readme's to your github repositories so others can understand what you are doing.Understand that coding is not easy. Yes, anyone can learn it, but not everyone can learn it well enough in 3 months to perform at a job. Work on some free beginner tutorials through treehouse.com or codecademy.com to see how you do and how much you really enjoy it.
In the end, for me, the investment was worth it, but I made a considerable effort into making sure that it was a good fit. Make sure you do the same for yourself. -
Niclas Willems
Front End Development
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I finished my Front End Developement (JS & Angular) cohort at the end of August 2016. Without sounding mushy, I can honestly say that it was one of the best and most fullfilling experiences of my life. The instructors and faculty at The Iron Yard in Atlanta made every effort to ensure that I was prepared to enter the tech scene. I made lifelong friendships that I woulnd't trade for anything. I can and do give it the highest recommendations for anyone looking to enter or advance in the tech industry.
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Ryan Cortez
Mobile Engineering (iOS) - Houston - First Cohort - Satisfied with the course, but it could be better
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I enjoyed the course. It was nice to have an intimate in-person classroom environment to learn. The Iron Yard Houston campus, is incredibly welcoming. The director and operations manager did a stellar job creating a productive, and fun campus community.
The instructor was talented an knowledgable. He knew not only course content, but understood the Houston technology space in a deep way, and customized the course for the Houston area. He also acknowledges how important the web is to new iOS developers and how blogging and getting yourself out in the developer community online is important.
The curriculum kept me interested and was fun, we had an Apple API focus everyday and had project related to that focus due by next class. I think this approach has an advantage on keeping students engaged and shows students the full capabilies of the iOS software development kit, but might not be actually preparing them for the realistic tasks they'll be doing at their jobs.
(The topics I see that are missing are a deeper dive into UIKit, a framework that will be the most used in the jobs that students and a heavy emphasis on debugging, and hard to find bugs. Most junior developers will be resolving bugs in their job rather than architecting somthing new from scratch. I would also like to see the homework assignments relate to a single app that you build throughout the course, rather than small, seperate single-view projects everyday . One of the harder parts of development is literally navigating through a large code base. Forcing students to deal with the large amount of files and code in their project will give them a better understanding of Xcode along the way. This is especially important since Iron Yard students are competeing against Computer Science students. The advantage that The Iron yard can have is giving students very specific real world skills, rather than focusing on a overall picture of the programming space like a Computer Science degree.)
Having no coding experience before a coding bootcamp may work better for web developement, but for Mobile Engineering in iOS. Have basic programming knowledge in any programming language is a requirement, there is a steeper learning curve in iOS to make something that looks and feels functional, compared to making a functional website. Getting hit with basic programming knowledge, adaptable UI, learning in a more complicated coding environment like Xcode is a lot. So I would definitely encourage anyone considering to study basic programming before hand. I had about a year of experience before I took the course and that really helped my learning accelerate.
I was in Houston temporarily, hoping to get a job back in Austin, so my situation was a bit odd. But if I was planning to stay in Houston, the support giving in terms of getting employment after graduation was great. We were given a mock interviews, demo/graduation day was a great place to showcase work to lots of employers visiting The Iron Yard. Throughout the course, we were given advice and reminders about what stages we should be thinking about in the job hunting process. And the journey didn't end after graduation. The Iron Yard staff continued to help guide me in my job hunt.
Given that it was the first Mobile Engineering cohort, it felt like being at a disadvantage because the staff was less versed on what hiring a Junior iOS developer would look like. During demo day, there were less companies that were seeking junior mobile developers rather than web developers. The weekly speakers were mostly geared toward web development. And the visit to a web consulting company was geared towards web developers. I'm sure as Mobile Engineering cohorts go through this campus, the resources for them will only increase.
Overall I'm proud to be an Iron Yard grauduate. It was fast-paced learning, and I got a lot out of the program. If you want to acclerate your learning of iOS development as fast as possible, The Iron Yard is the place to go. There are many cheaper resources online, and it is possible to learn it yourself. But many people won't have the disipline to self learn outside of a school environment, and it will defintely take months if not years longer to learn the skills that you need to get a job. So, what are you waiting for? The clock is ticking, go sign up for The Iron Yard.!
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Jake
UI/UX Student Columbia, SC 2015
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I graduated from The Iron Yard's UI/UX course at the Columbia, SC location in 2015 and accepted a full-time position about 3 months after graduating. My experience with this course, and the Iron Yard was definitely a positive and correct step in my life.
During those12 weeks, I went from 0 coding experience to learning html, css, javascript. The first couple of weeks focus on the fundementals to to give you a good foundations. In the following weeks, you build real-world projects and continue to cover more advance topics (JQuery/Sass). It is really impressive what can happen in such a short time.
The greatest benefit to me, you can create a whole new career path in a short amount of time. The initial money spent can easily be recouped once you land your first job.
After you graduate, you are apart of the Iron Yard Family. The instructors, directors have gone above and beyond to get you prepared and placed in your first job.
Advice: Network Network Network before you graduate. Also, get your hands dirty and just keep building.